DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2019 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 13 Titans 43 Postgame Thoughts

Gut wrenching.

Not prepared to throw all the toys out of the pram and start calling for heads to roll or people to be replaced. I hope the team gels and comes together and plays up to our expectations in a (very) short period of time.

That said - I wanted to keep Williams as HC. The number 1 thing I commented on when he took over last season was his impact on discipline and penalties. It was immediate. I think the O and D will both play better in the coming weeks - I do sincerely worry about the play calling on O and the discipline, I hope that also improves dramatically.

We can thank our lucky stars that we play the Jets next - we don't have to improve nearly as much to be competitive in that game compared to the Rams or Ravens week 3 or 4 !

I'm not worried, at least not yet.

But this crap continues next week, yeah we have a major issue.

Soooooo.... how 'bout them Indians??

I expected a slow start, but not this. I understand a new, first time HC along with new OC and DC. But the total lack of discipline is troubling.
Somebody has to force these players to get their heads in the game.

What I expected;

A slow start.

The O to be a bit sluggish.

This team needing time to gel.

What I didn't expect;

A total lack of discipline.

Our front four not getting more pressure with two starters out on the Titans OL.

I'm certainly disappointed but if it works to get this team more focused and working harder to get prepared, in the end it will be worth it in the long run.

Do you think we will ever see this team win the 1st game in a new season? What's it been, only once since we've come back and 14 years ago at that? Ridiculous!!

its ok to lose the 1st game.

its not ok to get clobbered in the first game by 30 at home.

Sad thing is, these guys have been playing ball for like the last 15 years of their life? They should know what it is they can and can't do. This is evidence of a complete lack of discipline in camp and players not being held accountable. This is what led to the discord between Hue Jackson and Todd Haley. Penalties dropped significantly when Williams was named interim head coach. Williams was the guy, not Freddie...too many egos for a first time HC...JMHO.

So what you're saying is we should have expected it.

Don't worry Eotab and his positivity will make us feel better

J/C

I’m really really happy I stopped buying season tickets in 2010. The refs decided this game as they do all games. The NFL is fixed and the Browns will win when the NFL Execs want them to win.

yep.

and i mean....we did the team no favors by completely ignoring the run in the 1st half. it was borderline criminal how the game was managed

The penalties werent on the players with the egos...

j/c

I'm not going to check back in for a few days to let all the "sky is falling" people have their way (I know you were just kidding with your post, Rocket).

I'm taking a silver lining approach. I'm mad we lost. Don't get me wrong. But I actually feel "ok" because I can't imagine anything could get worse. That was as bad a game as I've seen in a really long time.

It's really frustrating when we just didn't have the talent, or we were so close but just couldn't close it out. Today, we were awful in every way. I have a hard time thinking that will happen again.

Wheels came off. Big time. Now what do we do next week? The game against the Jets is the key, for me. Do we bounce back and show the world? Or do we fold?

See you in a few days.

The refs didn't decide this game. The Browns players did.

I wouldn't be too worried about the margin of victory.

I think the bigger worry is when the game wasn't going as easy as the players thought it would, they crumbled.

It doesn't matter how much talent you have...if you don't have it mentally you're in trouble.

The second biggest worry is how thoroughly out coached we were. Let's face it, the Titans are stuck in 9-7 purgatory. That's their ceiling. So they win by being smarter than their opponents. You can just see their staff was just toying with our staff.

That was not as fun as i imagined ... *L* ...

Fantasy island 1 - Paradise Island 0

Paradise Island has some work to do ... as does most of the team ... *L* ...

looked to me that the players DID buy into the hype. I don't think the optimism that has been around all off season will continue after today. Teams are going to prepare for the Browns the way they always have, as a gimme.

Biggest let down to me, besides the constant penalties, was the ineffectiveness of the Dline. They looked mediocre at best.

The faith I had in this team, for the first time since the return, just evaporated. I got no faith in them and wont ever again unless they earn it.

The Factory of Sadness lives on.

sorry Rish, but since 99, i wish we could be stuck in 9-7 purgatory

I agree with this.

However, it wasn't called fairly both ways. They weren't calling the same things on the Titans that they were on the Browns. But again, that's not why we lost.

I agree that would have been better than the alternative.

The team did not play the starters enough in the pre season and it showed.

Look for a better effort against the Jets.

I don't recall saying they were...

I said at the time and stand by it, The coaching staff should have stayed intact from last year. They had momentum and were playing great. I really think Dorsey has a problem with strong-willed coaches that could challenge his decisions. It was the crux of why he was let go with KC, and I think part of why he didn't want williams and didn't even interview Arians who openly campaigned for the job.. He also said he would have kept Kitchens as OC, which would have been ideal, give him a full season of play calling in a coordinator role and we ready to take over after some grooming. Kitchens calling his own plays won't work, I think he needs to at minimum turn over duties to Monken until this team starts to look more prepared and disciplined. Worry about game management. He looks completely lost on the sidelines and he's been gifted a bevy of talent on both sides of the ball. I said when he was hired, he is going to be under alot of pressure to win right away given the talent, the question is going to be how long does Dorsey ride with Kitchens if we aren't winning. It's obvious that he wants to win now and win alot. If coaching is holding that back, well the picture becomes clear

Personnel wise, You have to find upgrades at the tackle position. Both sides, they were ranked bottom of the league last year, I think you see if you can get Berry for a year and fix the backend. I still think Zeitler and Peppers and that first round pick would have been more impactful than Vernon and OBJ. Offense wasn't the problem last year, we had plenty of serviceable receivers and tight ends, we could have used that pick to get a LT/RT or a pass rusher. I know easy to second guess now. But this game was a worst case scenario come true.. The titans are not a good football team and we made them look like superbowl contenders.

I'm not kidding by saying we need to sign Justin Blackmon, either. Forget AB, he's the real winner.

in my notes, #74 had a bad day, not sure if he's a TE or Right side Ol,

Early, on a play inside the Browns own redzone, 72, and 74, both got ran right by, for the Baker fumble at the one, which one of those (72,74) recovered the fumble, after watching the guy knock the ball out without getting a block or even a hold or something.

later on, I also wrote that 74 did not pass protect on a play.

At one point the TV broadcast was highlighting McCray's good blocking
a block to set up the big hole for a big run
followed by an absolute pancake block on a run that didn't go very far.

Postgame thought.

I don't like making 5 roster moves, after the 53 man cutdown day,


post game thought.

It's not about getting pass rushers to rush the quarterback,
It's about finding out what recipe = a win.

For 19 years I've been watching how this team is going to go out and bring in the best football players from somewhere else,
but watching other teams take the players they already have and teaching them how to play winning football.

But if the Browns, Get a player and develop him for 3 years,
They kick em to the curb like expired milk, because he's the previous coachs'/Gm's guy

We could go back to the year Dion Lewis got cut/traded, we don't even have to talk about the last 4 years, it's been a repeating pattern.

How long will they keep "this" team together,

I still think this year is going to get better before it gets worse, but,

they weren't ready, maybe, ok they weren't "overly" ready,

WHAT DID THEY FREAKIN HAVE, WITH WILLIAM GREEN, THAT THEY DON'T HAVE NOW!
William Green could give you 105 yds rushing, as part of a recipe on offense that would = a win,

For years they had epic fails on the 2 minute offense,
Now, they can hit the 2 min offense, but epic fail on anything else.

Oh, and every running play doesn't have to come out of the shotgun formation all year long either.

We all saw what it was: a nightmare game, scenario, outcome, whatever you wanna call it.

The surprising thing to me was the undisciplined play ... personal fouls? An ejection? Miscommunication? And then their will collapsing ours.

It’s not the end of the world ... BUT, I will say that if we don’t beat the Jets we’re in big trouble

Did Vernon play?

Week one...no way you can deny that was awful, but those already doubting the head coach after one game?!

Nearly 200 yards surrendered by penalties. Starting LT ejected. 2nd string LT hurt. Starting RT moved over to the left side and a guy they just signed brought in on the right. Again, not trying to make excuses...we Browns'd this up good. But, to already start questioning the coach hire is ludicrous.

Well, that was disappointing. Here are some of the things I saw:

--We are a finesse team. The Titans beat us up physically.

--We were completely undisciplined. Dumb penalties, losing your cool, poor angles on runs, guys not maintaining their lanes.

--The team gave up w/around 9 minutes to play. That is very sad. We never gave up in games even when we were 0 and 16.

--Why call a pass play on 4th and 1? And then Baker decides to make a deep, difficult throw instead of throwing it short. Dumb.

--We looked like a team of individuals instead of a team.

--Baker makes bad decisions. He passes up open throws and forces the ball into tight corners. He was also inaccurate. He held the ball too long. Bad performance.

--The OL played poorly. Hubbard had a horrible game. Losing Robinson hurt and then losing Lamm right afterwards made things really tough. The interior was pretty good, but a bad day for the OL.

--The defense was horrible. Undisciplined. Not physical. Weak against strength.

--Coaching deserves an F.

Moving on: Well, we will see what this team is made of. It's one game. The coaching staff and the supposed leaders of the team to rally the team. We should be okay if we win and look good next week. If we play like crap again and are undisciplined, this could get ugly.

Yeah, but not anything of note ... in fact, I thought our DL underwhelmed from my view

I'm starting to get concerned Baker has slow eyes.

He seems to have no idea what to do once his first read is shut down and it takes him forever to come off that read.

yep.

but....hey he is only in his 2nd year now so he still has a lot of room to grow

Uh, so I was really wanting to go down to the game today, but I ended up not wanting to drop the cash on tickets... ended up dodging a bullet there... sometime around the 2nd/3rd quarter, sitting on the couch at home, that familiar numbness the Browns give me started to set in...

- I have several Steelers fans in the family and I was in group text with them over the weekend and they were in big discussions about Antonio Brown and mentioned that the Steelers/Browns game should be good and I said that I hope Baker will be healthy because we have OLine problems and I rued the Zeitler trade even though we got a good piece in return.. unfortunately the Oline really is even worse than I imagined but hopefully they can gel as the season progresses. Robertson kicking someone and getting ejected was so pathetic. They said it was a huge loss but it wasn't like the guy is Joe Thomas. But yeah, it wasn't good. I wasn't thrilled to see Garrett throwing a punch either. The penalties were ridiculous. I blame the refs a little bit but so undisciplined. Reminded me of the Browns/Steelers opener with Crennel about 10 years ago where there were a ton of flags flying but it wasn't anything like today...

- Baker obviously lost a step going into the 4th quarter once he started throwing those picks. It was done at that point anyway...

- The Oline will ruin our season by shutting down our entire offense by making the passing and running game impossible and possibly getting Baker injured. Has to be addressed and poor job out of the front office for letting it go unaddressed. I don't know that much about football and I could tell it would be a problem. It seems like a total basic element of football.

- It sucks we can't get a reliable kicker.

- I was mystified with the Freddie Kitchens hire last year but I will still give him the benefit of the doubt for a bit longer. I wanted Greg Williams to get the job because he had so much fire. But Freddie hasn't lost 8 in a row or anything like that so I'm not going to call for him to be on the chopping block yet. He isn't Hue or anything... yet.

It seems like teams say: Keep Baker in the pocket, and take away his quick first read .. best way to beat em

He struggles going through progressions, but he didn't lose this game. The entire team laid an egg. The OL sucked. The DL was underwhelming.

Two things concern me the most:

--Lack of discipline

--We got out-muscled big time.

Another thing that is nagging at me [but is too early to verify]

--We looked like a team of individuals instead of a "team."

Interesting enough I recorded the Jets Bills game because I wanted to see Darnold and Allen. Darnold seems to suffer from the same slow eyes as Baker. But Allen stands tall in the pocket and quickly goes through his reads. He's just not the best decision maker or accurate enough. But I am impressed with his pocket presence.

Another thing that’s a concern: OBJ had zero production the 2nd half .. that can’t happen

I agree with everything you have posted in this thread.

The hype going into today worried me because with irrational highs come irrational lows. As Verse said, we’ll now really get to see what the team is made of. In a way it might get a monkey off the back. Deflate the hoopla a little, knuckle down and get to work.

What I saw was EXACTLY what I feared most. Collective youth and inexperience coupled with a very shaky OL. We took a lot of risks this offseason and so far, not looking great. I did not anticipate the D breaking down so pathetically. That was a bit of a shocker.

I did predict a loss for this game and I was pretty confident it would come as a result of OL and inexperience. I think we’ll continue to have a very up and down 1st half of the season and hopefully, if they keep their heads together things will turn up. But our OL and coaching got exposed today. That doesn’t right itself quickly generally. I do think the D comes back angry. As they should.

We need to trade some future draft picks for quality offensive linemen to save things...